Palestinian shipments of medication heading to Gaza

Feb. 26, 2017 9:10 P.M. (Updated: Feb. 26, 2017 9:11 P.M.)

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah announced on Sunday that 27 trucks loaded with medications had left the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus and were headed towards the besieged Gaza Strip.

Hamdallah said that the shipment included antibiotics, as well as medication for cancer and kidney transplants.

“The Gaza Strip is a part of our homeland and there is no (Palestinian) state without the Gaza Strip,” Hamdallah said. “Gaza was and still is a priority for Palestinian leadership and the (Palestinian Authority) government, and we are undertaking huge efforts to meet the needs of our people in Gaza Strip amid the Israeli siege.”

In September, the World Bank said less than half of donor aid pledged to Gaza in the aftermath of 2014's devastating war had been disbursed. Gaza's Ministry of Health warned in 2015 that the lives of Gazans were at risk if the Israeli blockade continued.

The majority of the more than 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are sealed inside the coastal enclave due to the continuation of a near-decade long military blockade imposed by Israel and upheld by Egypt on the southern border.

The destruction from three Israeli offensives over the past six years, including damage to the enclave’s water, sanitation, energy, and medical facilities, coupled with slow reconstruction due to the blockade led the UN to warn that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020.